| Full name | Shepherd's Bush Football Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Bushmen | |
| Founded | 1880 | |
| Dissolved | 1915 | |
| Ground | Various, including Loftus Road (Capacity: ?) |
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Shepherd's Bush Football Club were an English football club based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, although they originally played in central and south London.
The club were founded as Old St Stephen's FC in 1880 in Westminster,[1] although they soon moved out to play in Denmark Hill and Nunhead.[2] In 1892 they were founder members of the Southern Alliance, one of the first attempts at a league in southern England, and topped the table before the competition was abandoned before the 1892-93 season was out. In 1894 they went on to become a founder member of the Southern League Second Division and finished third in their inaugural season; however they lost a test match against Royal Ordnance Factories and did not achieve promotion to the First Division.[3]
They continued to play in the Southern League under the Old St Stephen's name for another three seasons, never performing better than their inaugural season.[3] During this time, in 1895, they moved across London to Shepherd's Bush, playing on Shepherd's Bush Green itself, which was to host football at the 1908 Summer Olympics. In 1898 Old St Stephen's merged with another local team to become Shepherd's Bush FC.[1] They took Old St Stephen's place in the Southern League[4] and continued to play up until the 1901-02 season.[5]
Gaining the nickname of "the Bushmen", the club moved to Wormholt Farm, but when that site was threatened with development in 1904, Shepherd's Bush built and moved into the Loftus Road ground nearby; they played their first game there against Old Malvernians on October 22, 1904.[1] In 1907 the club re-entered competitive league football, joining the Spartan League and a year later the Isthmian League, where they played until the outbreak of World War I.[5]
During wartime, Shepherd's Bush were unable to play any further fixtures and disbanded in 1915.[1] In 1917, their Loftus Road ground was taken over by Queens Park Rangers, who continue to occupy it to this day.[1]